In every sense of the word, a "Classic" performance from Hopkins tonight.

I think it helps that Hopkins had a late start, thus less mileage on him. With the exception of the first Jones Jr fight, Hopkins had an easy ride until he was 36. He had an opportunity to learn his craft, and learn it well, he did.

It is interesting and somewhat unsurprising, that with one amazing exception (Moore), the fighters that could put in performances well into their 40s, had long periods of inactivity during their career.

 

What were the press ups for ?

 

Hops style-wise might have the edge against Bute, I think. But mentally he might be able to expose Dawson's lapses and mental weaknesses. So it's interesting.

 

I´m quite happy he won. :happy

 

Just wathced it without knowing the result before hand, I'm so happy for the legendary Hopkins.

I was worried when the final bell went that the judges might have saw the little bursts by Pascal as worthy of gaining him the victory but in the end all was well as I had it by 4 points for Hopkins.

Yes B-HOP

 

Did you see what Pascal did though? Hopkins started doing push ups so Pascal started doing them behind him with 1 hand! More proof that even after the fight had finished Hopkins had gotten in Pascal's head!

No disrespect to Pascal, he did his best.

 

This is a great accomplishment. Hopkins can put distance between himself and Moore / Foreman / Fitzsimmons if he can make a title defense or two.

 

- Bute's handspeed is comparable to Dawson's but perhaps slightly slower

- Dawson is the better inside fighter

- Bute is hands down the harder puncher and his body punching is so formitable it deserves a seperate acknowledgment.

- Bute has the better chin having walked through Bika, Miranda, Berrio, Zungia with the one instance vs Andrade in their first fight having as much to do with exhaustion than anything else. Dawson has been hurt or down vs Adamek, Johnson, Pascal, Diaconu off the top of my head.

- Dawson has quicker feet but Bute can be equally elusive and has better pivots imo and doesn't resort to simply jumping in and out and fighting in straight lines as often as Chad.

- Dawson gets hit with the right cross less often than Bute.

Against Bute Hopkins best bet is to fight a typical Hopkins fight ugly, boring, spoiling, excessive clinching and keep it on the inside as that is Bute's real flaw. You can tell he's not comfortable clinching, holding, wrestling on the insde and even when he has oppertunites to throw inside he typically doesn't. If he tries to fight like he did tonight and be more exciting, take risk, exchange, fight at range Bute will stop his ass.

Against Dawson fighting from the outisde he'll still be at a disadvantage but not as much as against Bute imo. Dawson is comfortable and quite adept at fighting inside but if Hopkins gets dirty and rough i think it would be very easy to throw Dawson off his game. Hopkins will be able to mind**** Dawson worse than a Pensylvannia State Inmate.

P.S. as for TS 'Classic' performance indeed. The old thumb in eye trick would have made Zivic proud lol

 

All props to BHop, but Pascal is so amateurish one wonders how he got this far. He makes so many mistakes so obvious to anyone who has been coached on any level...

Meanwhile, Hopkins proves great longevity if not actual greatness at any one time.

 

Pascal is about as poor a real champion as I've seen. When Dawson finally woke up in the 11th round, he seriously rattled him twice and was on his way to stopping him or at least dropping him before the headbutt, and Dawson isn't even a puncher It's not even just Pascal's skills that are lacking, the guys just never heard of ring generalship. Either he doesn't spar a lot (like most youngsters today, to their detriment) or he's the dumbest ****er on the planet.

But incredible performance by Hopkins. At his age to beat a guy of Pascals athletic abilities shows why boxing is such a pure art.

 

Hopkins is a true legend. I had it 115 to 113 Hopkins. Once he did the pushups I knew
he had really got into pascal's head. Loved his defense last night, thoughts on the
knockdowns? I thought the both should have been knockdowns but more so the second.